Misused: Army Of The Dead

Army Of The Dead, aside from a bad case of Example As Thesis, is defined as "Fallen allies, usually having died either in the battle at hand or in a previous battle with the same enemy, rise temporarily from the dead en masse and contribute to the ongoing battle in some critical way". Thus, it's a subtrope of The Cavalry.

However, it's burdened with a more general name that makes it sound like it's about any undead army. We already have that trope listed as Night of the Living Mooks.

There are currently 166 wicks and 165 inbounds. Wick check:

Correct usage as undead cavalry (16/50)

• Axe Cop
• Battalion Wars (also a Cavalry Betrayal apparently)
• Deadlands (looks like a shoehorn of something; the example says it’s an example of both Army Of The Dead and Night of the Living Mooks)
• Dora Wilk Series
• Fables
• Ginga Densetsu Weed
• His Dark Materials
• League Of Legends G To J
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars S4E19 "Massacre"
• Superman: Doomed
• The 3rd Birthday
• The Lord of the Rings
• Tropes A to F
• Warhammer 40,000: Craftworld Eldar
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Card Game F to J

Misuse as undead armies in general (22/50)

• Adventure Time: Main
• Age of Mythology
• Nightmare Fuel/Asterix
• Badass Cape
• Chronicles of Chaos
• Evil Is Not a Toy
• Interesting Times
• Game of Thrones S2E10: "Valar Morghulis"
• Lost Roman Legion
• Merlin S 03 E 12 The Coming Of Arthur Part I
• Naruto - Movie-Only Characters
• Nox
• Phantom Brave
• Romantically Apocalyptic
• Skullgirls: Other Characters
• Star Wars Paranormalities Valkoran Empire Characters
• The Circumstances Leading To Waltrautes Marriage
• The Lon Tobyn Chronicle
• The Twelve Tasks of Asterix
• Tropes A
• Tropes O To Z
• Unlight

Zero or not enough context (12/50)

• Bleach Gotei 13 Squads 1-7
• Digimon No Level
• Fate/Grand Order: Berserkers
• Galavant
• Hawaii Five-0
• Hyrule: Total War
• Malazan Book of the Fallen
• Tempting Fate
• The Canticle
• The Forges of Dawn
• Touken Ranbu (only talks about how they look , which is more Doom Troops anyway)
• Warcraft Player Charcters

Summary: Of 50 checked wicks, there is 32% correct use, 44% misuse, and 24 % not enough context.

I therefore want to suggest renaming Army Of The Dead to Cavalry of the Dead (which is currently a redirect of the former) to make its connection to The Cavalry clearer and to both move misuse to Night of the Living Mooks and make Army Of The Dead a redirect to that trope.

edited 15th Apr '16 3:24:18 AM by Morgenthaler

Not applicable to the Bleach example, as they are the ENEMIES of the Shinigami coming back to life to aid him, forced to serve him. It even says in the example "killed by the flames of Ryūjin Jakka" (which is his zanpakuto (sword)). It's just an Animate Dead spell. Agree that Cavalry of the Dead would be better, and Army Of The Dead should redirect to Night of the Living Mooks.

edited 23rd Apr '16 11:13:46 AM by TheOneWhoTropes

Malazan Book of the Fallen is two examples mashed into one and without proper context. The first is this (probably by accidentally finding the right trope), the second is Night of the Living Mooks.

I support renaming one and redirecting the other, I've seen Army Of The Dead misused quite a bit in fantasy lit work pages.

edited 23rd Apr '16 5:11:18 PM by Derkhan

Actually, on second thoughts, renaming Night of the Living Mooks, whose name is overly video game-y, to the more generic Army Of The Dead might be better.

^ I could get behind that.

Bump. Any other thoughts, or shall we proceed straight to crowner if there are no dissenting voices?

I'm fine with that.

"Mooks" is not a video gaming term; it's simply overused for video game tropes on this wiki. That said, when considered as a video game trope, Night of the Living Mooks suggests a level type which seems largely covered by Big Boo's Haunt.

Alright, since it's been three days, here's a crowner with the two options for Army Of The Dead and Night of the Living Mooks.

I don't think we need to rename Night of the Living Mooks simply because mooks are understood to be nameless soldiers working for the bad guys in across all media. Stormtroopers are one of the first things that come to mind with the term "mooks." I can get behind redirecting Army Of The Dead to it, though.

Calvary of the Dead sounds like a more indicative rename for the issue at hand.

This is looking pretty decisive, but since it hasn't been bumped for votes yet, let's give it another day or two to see if it draws any more interest.

Since it's been a few days, I've sent a holler asking the mods to take another look.

The two options on the crowner, both currently at least 2:1, seemingly contradict each other.

No, they compliment each other.

One is to rename Night of the Living Mooks. The other option is to rename Army Of The Dead. In fact, you cannot do the former if you don't do the latter.

However, I can't figure out why they're both on the same crowner. You're right about them being incredibly confusing. I thought the same as you at first, and I'd venture a guess that most people who downvoted "Change Night of the Living Mooks" did as well. But shouldn't that be in its own topic, or crowner at least?!?

edited 23rd May '16 12:22:08 PM by Larkmarn

Ok, I've moved the page over to the new name, added a note to the discussion page and in the FAQ thread, and added an entry to Renamed Tropes.

Wick cleaning is next.

Bit late to the table with this suggestion, but should the name Army Of The Dead be used for the currently missing supertrope to Cavalry of the Dead and Night of the Living Mooks?

Which missing supertrope?

Armies of the dead in general.

That's Night of the Living Mooks. One could argue "Well, what about undead armies who don't fight for team evil?" but that's pretty much a distinction without a difference, since kill-crazy undead with swords and armor are almost always a Villain by Default.

The Lord of the Rings, Bedknobs And Broomsticks both have undead armies on the side of heroes.

edited 24th May '16 3:36:02 PM by shimaspawn

^ The former is an example of the very trope we just renamed; not familiar with the latter.

One of the God of War games has the protagonist — who is a very dark antihero, but a hero nonetheless — summon the spirits of his dead Spartan comrades to temporarily aid him in battle. While one may argue a case for the protagonist being a Nominal Hero at best, the Spartans he's calling upon are morally neutral at worst IINM.

That, again, is Cavalry of the Dead.